Easy, inexpensive, delicious cocktail party food

I'm hoping the experts out here will help a relatively new (but very enthusiastic) home cook. We're having a house party, and I'd love to make some delicious appetizers for around 30 people at a cocktail party. Of course, I don't have a lot of money to spend, and don't want to spend the whole party in the kitchen! Any suggestions for delicious, easy dishes that will help keep a crowd munching and drinking happily? Thanks!

I get the smallest disposable loaf pan you can get. They make one's that are about two inches by four inches. I cut inch wide strips of parchment paper or waxed paper and line the pan so it's coming up the sides and sits as flat as you can get it. Then, add a layer of goat cheese, then a layer of pesto (premade from the grocery store, put in cheesecloth and oil squeezed out - really get it as dry as you can), another layer of goat cheese, a layer of sundried tomatoes (again, drained and patted well if packed in oil, chopped roughly), another layer of goat cheese, one more layer of pesto, and a final layer of goat cheese. Turn out onto a plate and remove the pan and paper. If you haven't gone crazy smearing the goat cheese up the sides, you'll have beautiful and colorful layers. Serve with crackers or crostini and crudite. Brocoli seems to be a favorite with this.

Seriously, my friends beg for it every time. You can make it DAYS in advance and leave it in the pan. You'll need probably three of those small round 'tubes' of goat cheese and one container of pesto. Good luck.

For parties I make an "economy" version of the cocktail franks in dough recipe. They look and taste as good as if you bought the fancy frozen ones or used expensive cocktail franks.

1 package regular size hot dogs1 can pillsbury crescent rolls

Cut hot dogs into thirds. Cut one triangle of crescent roll in half. Wrap dough around hot dog piece, place on cookie sheet, bake in 375 degree oven for about 8 minutes or until roll is golden brown. Serve with mustards of choice.

Another old favorite with the cocktail franks, I use Li'l Smokies is to combine equal amounts of good catsup and beer with the sausages and cook until the sauce is thick. I also have used bulk saugage and rolled it into meat balls and dropped them in the "sauce" and again cooked untl thickened. I had people looking for bread to mop up the remains of the sauce.

The Southern traditional (well, probably since about 1950) take on this is a 50-50 mix of Heinz chili sauce and grape jelly. You put it all into a chafing dish, melt the ingredients into each other, and dump in your cocktail weenies and let'em get hot. If you want to get'em dancin' on the tables, splash in some Tabasco...

Yes, that's what I use for cocktail meatballs instead of wieners...and I add some fresh lemon juice and brown sugar to the cranberry/cocktail sauce mixture....I should have thought of cocktail meatballs, too, for this thread. Also pretty retro.

Two packages plain frozen meatballsOne bottle Heinz 57 SauceOne jar Welch's Grape JellyRinse the bottles out with a little white wine and dump that in too.

Cook on high all day. Result: The most addictive danged meatballs I've ever had.

One of our staff scientists brought them to a party and they were gone before anything else had been touched. Our CEO has fiddled with the recipe several ways -- adding spices, garlic, etc. You can't break these. You can't beat these.

I am going to do a retro thing for Labor day and dig out a chicken liver/bacon/water chestnut rumaki hors d'oeuvre - I agree with Bibi, the franks wrapped in biscuit dough make sixties college babes like my partner, misty-eyed!

How about some hummus and pita chips? VERY inexpensive if you make the hummus yourself...also black bean dip is very inexpensive.

Here's a recipe for pinwheels that I swear get constant comments from co-workers when we do after-hours socializing...it's sort of a junky recipe but the colors are so pretty, they do taste pretty good and the most expensive item is the cream cheese. As well as extremely easy to do! There's no direct link to hidden valley ranch for this recipe so I'll paraphrase it:

Mix cream cheese, seasoning packet and green onions til blended. Spread on tortillas. Sprinkle equal amounts of the veggies over cream cheese. Roll up the tortillas and wrap in plastic. Chill at least 2 hrs...to serve, just slice and arrange on trays, sliced side up. Sometimes, it's good to add a little tabasco to the cream cheese mixture for a little kick, especially if you can't find the ripe olives with jalapenos. I suppose you could substitute any herbed soft cheese, like Rondele or Boursin, for this and omit the HV packet altogether but those are usually expensive.

toast slices of baguette. brush with garlic & olive oil. lay down a basil leaf on each. shmear each with softened goat cheese. put a slice of plum tomato on top of each and salt & pepper. they are easy and everyone always loves them.

I can't answer your specific question (don't live in B'klyn), but I'm guessing that the $5 per jar caviar Hap refers to is actually lumpfish roe. This can be bought in small jars, both black or red, in pretty much any supermarket. I use it in the canape recipe below, too, but it would never stand up as caviar on its own.

1.Finely chop hard-cooked eggs.2.In a large bowl, gently combine chopped eggs, caviar, mayonnaise, cream and pepper.3.Heat lemon juice in a small saucepan, remove it from the heat and sprinkle the gelatin on top to soften.4.When cooled slightly, stir the gelatin into the lemon juice to combine, the gently stir it into the caviar/egg mixture.5.Use a non-stick vegetable oil spray on the inside of a decorative mold. Pour the mixture into the mold, smooth the surface, and chill until set (a minimum of 4 hours) or overnight. [Alternatively, you can pour the mixture into a decorative serving bowl that you can leave it in and thus avoid any potential unmolding disaster.]6.Serve with thin slices of toasted French bread on which to spread mousse.